The Mighty Hoax
by Lily Rachel Evens
Summary: Albus Serverus Potter is at his first year of Hogwarts, but a simple desition might have just changed the way his friends and family see him.
1. The Sorting Hat

"Well, I can tell you're your father's boys, you have his tact for trouble, but you have your mother's brains though. But ambition, you have plenty of that. Yes, overflowing with it in fact. You're loyal and determined. But I'm not sure if Gryffindor is the best place for you,"

Albus Severus Potter clenched his fists by his side, hoping that this surreal experience would end soon. That hat muttering in his ear was making him feel dizzy and he needed to take it off.

"Hmm, defiantly not Gryffindor, well better be SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted the last word out for the rest of the hall to hear. A flood of dread flew through Albus as he walked down to the Slytherin table. He was greeted by a silence. Nobody expected any child of the famous Harry Potter, a true Gryffindor and the man who killed Salazar Slytherins last heir would end up in that very house. The very house Albus did not want to end up at.

He sat down and stared at the table, but he could feel eyes boring into him. He looked up and searched for his older brother James, who was two years older than him. James was staring at him in disbelief, but then he started clapping. Even if it was a shock, Albus was still his brother and he needed some support.

He was sat next to Scorpius Malfoy. A blonde boy with a pale thin face and pale blue eyes. He specifically remembered that Uncle Ron had told Rose to beat him every test, as he was the son of Draco Malfoy. A man who his dad, mum, aunt and uncle didn't get along that well with. But he had sworn he saw a secret smile shared between Draco Malfoy and his dad when they saw each other on the platform. Like that after all these years of toil and annoyance, they had finally forgiven each other.

"You that Potter boy aren't you?" asked Scorpius.

"Yeah, my name is Albus, but most people call me Al."

"Nice to meet you Albus, I'm Scorpius. It's a bit of a surprise to see you in this house. My father said that you dad was a true Gryffindor at heart,"

"I'm a bit surprised too," Albus said sheepishly, not understanding why Scorpius was being so nice to him.

Scorpius laughed, he then held out his hand waiting for Albus to shake it, "Call me Scorp. I hope we can be friends,"

Al nodded, and shook Scorp's hand, "I hope so too,"

The two boys turned back around in their seats to finish watching the sorting.

When the Sorting Hat had been put away the Head Mistress, Professor McGonagall. She looked quite old but her hair was pulled back in a tight grey bun. You could tell she was strict, but in her eyes there was a sadness that only people who had gone through a lot could have. "Well it's a new year at Hogwarts. I shall just welcome back old students and welcome the new ones. Just to refresh your memory the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds, and that means for everyone James Potter," A laugh ran round the whole room, while all the first years craned their necks to see who they were laughing at, "Our new Head girl and Head boy are Clarissa Huttle and Brandon Gold. Prefects from Gryffindor are Dodge Clan and Hanna Klien. From Slytherin are Eric Bullstrode and Kathy Klat. From Hufflepuff are Reid and Maria Cousins and from Ravenclaw, Penny Lothtia and Kiel Sway. Now enough with the talk, to dinner!" she clapped her hands and piles of food appeared on the table.

It wasn't until then that Albus thought about how hungry he was. He dove to the first piece of chicken he found. His mum said that he inherited his Uncles big stomach and love for chicken, so much so that he and Ron fought over the last piece at Christmas's.

Albus spent most of the time left in the hall stuffing his face with large amounts of food. He only stopped because he was beginning to feel sick and didn't want to heave up all the tasty food he had just eaten.

When all the food had faded away from the tables Professor McGonagall sent the prefects to take the first years to their dormitories, the rest of the student left and began to great old friends and make new ones.

Kathy Klat was a tall skinny blonde girl with long curly hair and blue eyes. In fact as Albus looked around every Slytherin had blue eyes, he suddenly felt self conscious of his inherited green ones and directed his eyes towards the floor. Eric Bullstrode had a greasy mop of mousy brown hair; he was covered in pimples and looked quite geeky. But Albus knew he wasn't someone to get on the wrong side of, as he was well built and looked strong.

They led the new first years down a few stairs that decided to change and not come back over for a while. At one point a staircase refused to let them through, they had to back up and take a different route. Finally they reached a wall. It was grey stone and at the end of a long corridor, Albus first thought that they had gone the wrong way, but Kathy and Eric stopped them all and Kathy began to speak. "This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room, the password this year is 'Snake's Blood' now you don't tell anyone from any other house the password and you don't let anyone else in our common room. Got it?" he voice was sharp and nasty, it didn't suit her cute pigtails and innocent looking face.

A murmur of yes's and nods went round the group.

"Good, now let's enter," she smiled at them sweetly, her voice going sugary and angelic.

The wall opened and they all trailed in.


	2. The Common Room

The first years let out gasps as they walked through that wall. The room was magnificent. The walls were stone bare and there were Slytherin flags and banners everywhere. Some looked old and frayed, but others were freshly green and new. On one wall there was a family tree painted of Salazar Slytherins' family line, the last name was Tom Riddle, and everyone knew who that was. Several leather sofas were spread across the room; they were cracked from use but still looked so comfortable and were strewn with large green pillows. A large fire crackled merrily, heating the whole room. There were a few book shelves that held spare copies of all the book they needed in classes, Albus spotted a set of Gilderoy Lockhart books, dusty on top of a shelf. Most likely have been abandoned after people found out about him. He knew his Aunt Hermione would have run over a dusted them, she had a secret obsession with Lockhart, gods knows why though. The floor was green carpet, with sliver swirls forming into snakes spreading across the floors.

But it wasn't the fancy floor, or the fire or the tree that had caught Albus' attention, it was the windows.

One side of the common room was completely glass, and on the other side of the glass was murky green water. They were under the black lake! Albus stared in awe at the floor length windows; he watched shoals of silvery fish dart past and taking suspicious looks at the first years.

Kathy came up behind him and put one hand on his shoulder, "Some Slytherins that stay up a night sometimes swear they have seen the Giant Squid," she told him. Albus looked up at her, and worry must have shown on his face because she laughed and said, "Don't worry Al. It can't break in here,"

Scorpius came up to Albus, "Al! Come look at the dorms!" Al turned away from the windows and followed Scorp down a flight of winding stairs lit by seventeen flickering torches mounted on the walls. They then came to a fork in the stairs; Scorp dragged him down the left one, after a few more steps they made it to a door. He pushed it open and went in.

The Slytherin dormitory was just like his dad had described the Gryffindor ones, but the four poster curtains and bed sheets were emerald green and silver to match the Slytherin colours. A green rug was around the centre boiler that was warming the large room, and there were a couple of windows with murky water behind them. The room was lit by floating balls of light that where at the top of each four poster, most likely that the boys could read at night without having to bother everyone else.

Under each of the beds were the boy's trunks. Albus was in between Scorpius and a boy called Daniel Caine. The other two boys in the dorm with them were called Philip Caine and Charlie McDonald.

On the bed with Charlie McDonald's suitcase under was a boy with wavy dark brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin. He was pouring over a book called 'How to Defeat the Dark Arts'. He kept noting things down on a long roll of parchment with a long green quill.

He looked up when we heard the door open, then saw who it was and looked back down.

"Hi," said Albus, going over to the boy, "I'm Albus,"

The boy looked him up and down, "I know exactly who you are," then went back to his book.

Albus looked over a Scorpius who shrugged his shoulders and carried on unpacking his bags.

The door burst open again and two boys, both with sandy gold hair, blue eyes and pale skin bounced in. They were talking to each other loudly about one of Albus' Uncle Georges' joke shop products. "Hiya!" said the first boy loudly, seeming to say it to no one in particular.

"I'm Albus," Albus held out his hand to the first boy.

"I know who you are. You're the Potter boy that got sorted into Slytherin. Talk of the school, everyone knows who you are. Anyway, I'm Daniel. This is my brother Philip. Just call us Dan and Phil," he took Albus' hand and shook it vigorously. The Phil grabbed the other hand and did the same.

"This is Scorpius," Al introduced Dan and Phil.

They waved at him, and Scorp nodded back, and then they went and jumped on the beds.

Albus then went over to his own bed. He found his pyjama's already folded up on his pillows and his Hogwarts robes freshly ironed and pressed on his bedside stand. He drew the drapes around his bed shut and got changed. He was shattered and when he got in bed and sunk into the feathery softness of his bed and pillows he instantly fell asleep.

In the morning he went down to breakfast feeling refreshed and happy. He saw James and Rose sitting on the Gryffindor table; he went over and sat down next to James and opposite Rose. But they just stared at him in disbelief. "Why didn't you ask the hat to put you in Gryffindor?" James asked.

"Um... I don't know, but I didn't really know what I wanted to be in. I wanted it to judge me for real," Albus said.

"Dad will kill you. He said that the hat takes your thoughts too," Rose interjected.

"Well maybe I didn't want to be in Gryffindor,"

James and Rose looked taken aback by his sudden outburst.

"I thought that at least you guys wouldn't give me jack about being in Slytherin. But no... Your just as bad as anyone else," he stood up, "I'm going to sit with my friends now. At the Slytherin table," he flounced away in a huff to sit with Scorpius, Dan, Phil and the mysterious boy Charlie, who was still taking notes.


	3. The Hooked Nosed Man

Albus sat down next to Dan, and hunched over his toast - that had magically appeared on his plate.

"What's up Albus? Annoying brother?" Dan asked him, "Cos if it is, I feel your pain," he nudged his twin.

"Hey!?" Phil protested, "Take that back!" he pulled his wand from his robes and pointed it at Dan's nose

"It was a joke! Calm Philip!" Dan raised his hands as a peace offering.

"Yeah. My brother and cousin are just giving me jip because I got sorted into Slytherin, even though on both sides of my family we have always been Gryffindors. First person in the potter family to be in Slytherin. Ever. My dad is going to kill me,"

"He isn't going to kill you Al, he should be proud to have a son in Slytherin,"

"Yeah, suppose," he poked at his toast with his wand, hoping something exciting would happen to cheer him up.

But his bad mood didn't last for long, because Professor Slughorn, who must have been at least 150 by now, came over. "Here's your timetables me boys," he said in a jolly manor, handing one to each of the boys.

"Thanks sir," said Scorpius taking his with gratitude.

"You're very welcome Scorpius me boy," he nodded at Scorp, " Now Albus, your dad must have told you about my little get togethers that I have, with some very few select students at time to time?"

In fact Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had refrained from telling any of their children about Slughorn's parties, just to give them a little surprise when then got to school. They made James swear not to tell them after he attended his first year.

"Yes sir," Albus lied.

"Good, well I'm having a little get together tonight at my office, around dinner time. I would be delighted if you could come along, we shall be serving the food. Your little friend Scorpius is welcome to come too," and with that he trotted off towards another group of students who needed their timetables.

"I've got potions first!" Scorpius exclaimed happily. Dan, Phil, Charlie and Albus quickly looked to see what they had.

"I think we all have," Dan commented.

"Does anyone know where it is?" Phil asked. Everyone looked around, but no one spoke.

"I think we should set off now," Albus laughed, "It's not good to be late to your first ever lesson,"

And with that the boys jogged out of the Great Hall, one a search for the Potions Classroom. But Albus couldn't but help steal a glance at his cousin and brother, whose nasty and judgemental stares followed him out of the room.

They found the Potions classroom in record time, It was very close to their common room, so with a couple of wrong turns and dead ends they made it to their first class. Turns out that the Gryffindors, who they had Potions with had decided to do the same. He eyes searched the crowd but he could not see Rose among their eager classmates.

Slughorn then noisily clattered down the stairs, his long robes almost tripping him up a couple of times, "Everyone in! Everyone in!" he waved his wand and the door swung open, a few students look in awe, as this was one of the first pieces of real magic they had seen.

"Well don't just stand there with your mouths open! Go in a sit down," he bellowed in his abnormally loud voice, almost deafening the petite Gryffindor girl who was stood in front of him.

They all trailed into the class, Dan, Phil, Charlie, Scorpius and Albus all went and took the work bench that was at the back of the room. Al sat down, his back towards a portrait of a man with greasy black hair, dark beady eyes and a long hooked nose.

"You must be that Potter boy that everyone keeps going on about,"

Albus whipped around, he knew that the portraits talked, but most of them were happy to meet him, "Yes, I am that Potter boy," he spat back in a mimicking tone, he disliked the man in the portrait already.

"Don't take that tone with me boy, I saved your father's life a few times, and I knew your grandmother, you have her eyes you know,"

Albus looked hard at the man, wondering who he was, as there was no name plate under his frame like on most pictures.

"Don't gawp at me boy, I'm not a performing seal of something stupid like that, I'm a man. Now tell me you name, and if there are going to be anymore of Potter's brats coming to this school,"

Albus was annoyed by this man, who kept putting his family down, so he said with strength in his voice "My name is Albus Severus Potter. I have a brother called James Sirius and a sister called Lily Luna. Stop insulting my family, or I could just cover you up," but as he said all this he saw the man's hard face soften and his eyes began to water.

"He named your sister after Lily?"

"My grandmother, yes,"

"You take good care of her," the man told him.

"What's you name then?"

"Me? Oh, I'm just an old headmaster. Severus Snape,"

Albus stared at him blankly, this was who his father had named him after, he felt disappointed with himself, and his name. This man was mean, and cruel, how could his father do that to him.

"Yes, your daddy did name you after me, and I don't know why. I was never very fond of your father, or his annoying friends. But I guess this means we forgive each other,"

"I'll pass the message on sir," Albus nodded and then turned away from him.

"Just take care of your sister, don't let her make the same mistakes your grandmother did," Albus thought he heard a sob on the word grandmother, but he didn't turn around to check.


	4. Oh, Their Just My Parents

The rest of Albus's day went by in a flash. The castle was massive and they were continuously getting lost among the magnificent stone structures.

Dan realised he had a knack for Charms, and performed perfect spells all lesson, Phil and Charlie were good at Transfiguration and Albus was the best in the class at potions. But the main reason Albus was so good at potions is the fact that the old headmaster was sat behind him whispering tricks into his ear. Slughorn kept saying he had his grandmother's talent, but Albus knew he was cheating him in a way.

The first term flew by before you could say Quidditch. Gryffindor was in the lead for the house cup thanks to his cousin Rose's brains earning them all the points, but Slytherin had won every game of Quidditch they had played so far (which was one, but Albus was still so convinced they were going to win the cup).

So soon enough each student had received the letter asking if they wanted to go home. Albus sent his home immediately and it returned within a day signed by his dad. But Dan and Phil's parents were going away on a ski trip and had decided to leave the two boys behind. So Albus, being the great friend that he was, invited them round to his house with him. Albus's parents agreed most definitely that they could come.

In fact, the three boys were so excited that they couldn't wait to get to the Potter house. The day that the scarlet engine would arrive at Hogsmead station couldn't come soon enough for them. And then the day came, the boys rushed to the carriages and grabbed the first one at the front of the line. Once they got to the train they quickly grabbed a booth to themselves.

From that point the area in the train was filled with festive laughter and cheer, as the three boys made enough noise to fill the whole of their Common room. They only quietened down when a girl pushed the door to their booth open.

All three boys stared at her, "Um hi," Dan said.

"Oh sorry!" the girl looked up and blushed deeply, "I didn't know anyone else was in here. I'll leave," she turned and began to pull the door open, but Albus stood up and put his hand on her arm.

"No stay, I can tell you can't find any empty booths. You'll be fine here,"

"Really?" the girl's eyes widened, as if she had never been invited to sit with anyone before.

"Yeah sure, we don't mind," Phil said.

She went and sat down awkwardly next to Albus, after he had shifted the many sweet wrappers next to him.

"Chocolate frog?" Dan held up one of the few chocolate frogs that were left and handed it to the girl.

"Please! I missed breakfast this morning. Some students stole some of my things and I spent most of my time looking for them," she took it and ripped it open, stuffing the frog into her mouth before it even got a chance to acknowledge the light. Then she flipped over the card, "I got Harry Potter," she said, after she had swallowed the large bite she had took.

Albus smiled, but decided not to tell the girl that he was his father. But then he realised, quite late on really, that he didn't know the girls name. "What's your name?"

"Emily, Emily Parker. I'm a Ravenclaw, and muggleborn, so I don't know anyone here properly. And no one really likes me, I mean, they think I'm odd. So they hide my things," she said all of this in such a rush. It was as if she felt sad about what she had just said and was rushing to get it all out of the way.

Dan looked at Phil and smiled, and nodded at each other, "You can hang with us at school, pass us your timetable," he reached over and took Emily's timetable as she pulled it from her robes.

Albus leaned over a looked down at it, pulling out his own timetable to compare, "We have Defense Against the Dark Arts together, and Transfiguration, and Flying, and Charms, together. I'm usually sat by myself so you can sit next to me,"

Emily looked ecstatic "Really!?" she smiled brightly showing brilliantly straight white teeth, "I've never had friends before," her smiled faded and she bit her lip, "We are friends, right?"

"Of course we are, we couldn't get rid of you if we wanted you to go," Dan said rather tactlessly.

"Which we don't," Phil chipped in quickly giving Dan a hard nudge in the ribs and a deadly glare.

She smiled again, helping herself to another chocolate frog, "So what are your names?"

"I'm Dan, this is Phil," Dan pointed to himself and Phil.

"Albus," Al held out his hand and Emily shook it.

"Pleasure, did you get invited to Slughorn's Christmas party?" Emily asked.

"Yes, what a drag that was, I wonder why my mum and dad never told me about them, and neither did James. That was a bit cruel I think,"

"Yeah," Dan scoffed, "I'm glad me and Phil got chucked out after the first diner, I don't think I could have lived through anymore of them,"

"I enjoyed it," Emily stated, "I never saw you their Al. But I did see pictures of the past Collectees. He collected Harry Potter and Hermione Granger! How lucky they were! Didn't see Ron though, but his sister was there, what's her name again?"

"Ginny, well Ginevra Weasley or Potter now, since she's married," Albus said, he was used to people knowing who he was, but Emily obviously didn't.

"How do you know so much?" she smiled and gave him a soft punch on his shoulder. Flirting.

"Oh, she's my mother. And Harry's my dad. Hermione and Ron my aunt and uncle. You know the drill,"

Emily looked flabbergasted.


	5. Lily

Albus, James, Rose, Dan and Phil all met Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny on Platform 9¾. Rose ran to embrace her mother in a tight hug and James nodded at his parents, obviously thinking he was too cool for a hug.

"Mum, dad," Albus said but Ginny interrupted him.

"You must be Dan and Phil!" she pulled the twins into a group hug, "It's so good to finally meet you. Al has told us a lot about in his letters,"

She pushed the boys over to Harry who they stared at in aw, "My mum fancies you," Phil blurted out, his ears turning bright pink after he realised what he said. _Just like Ron's used too,_ Harry thought. Dan looked just as mortified but the whole group started laughing hysterically.

"Well, Ginny, looks like you've got competition," Hermione joked, flinging her arms around both Ginny and Harry.

Though the Awesome Foursome were in their 30's now, they still behaved a little like the teenagers they once were, but they guessed it was fair because they all had their childhood rudely ripped from their hands by Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

"Come on, let's get home," Ron lead the whole group and their entire luggage to a very old battered look sky blue Ford Anglia, "Everyone in!" Ron clicked his fingers and the doors flew open. "I've been teaching it a few things," he smiled proudly at his work.

"How is everything supposed to fit in that old thing?" Dan whispered to Rose, who he seemed to have gotten friendly with after discovering their shared talent for Charms.

"Oh, you'll see," she smiled mysteriously, then grabbed his hand and pulled him into the car.

The back seat was like a giant sofa, enchanted to accommodate 5 of the assorted witches and wizards, and front seat stretched to fit 4. They all slide in comfortably as Ron and Harry lugged the luggage into the boot, which Dan had a sneaking suspicion had been enchanted too.

"Buckle up and hold on tight," Ron said as he hit a small silver button on the dashboard.

Everyone around Al disappeared, Phil let out a girlish shriek and Dan laughed. They felt themselves drifting up into the air and then speeding off into the darkening sky.

Albus stared at the ceiling of his room in the Potter house. It was dark and all the objects in his room had moulded into darkened shapes that seemed too menacing to be true. He hadn't fallen asleep yet, at Hogwarts he was used to being a Slytherin, but in his own room he wasn't. His walls were in his brother's house colours and his father's old Gryffindor flags were hung up around the room.

They were frustrating him, and making his head hurt, he felt guilt and pride at the same time, but he couldn't take anymore. I practically fell out of bed and ripped the flag closed to him down, he ran round the room pulling each one from the spot where it was hung.

Soon he had a bundle of them in his arms, dropped his wand into his pyjama pocket and he ran downstairs and into the garden. He dumped them on the ground and then pulled his wand from his pocket and whispered "Incendio", aiming at the pile.

They burst into flames and the already bright red flamed so bright. He turned his back to the fire and began to walk back to the house, only to be stopped by a young girl with hair almost as bright as the fire. She was dress in a little white night gown and clutching a bear in her left hand.

"Albus, what are you doing?" she whispered in a small voice, "You know you're not suppose to use magic outside if school,"

"Come on Lily, let's take you back to bed," he reached out her hand but she pulled it behind her.

"No, you've been naughty Albus, you're burning daddy's flags, and you're burning daddy's house,"

"The house isn't on fire Lily," Albus said reassuringly.

"But daddy's school house is," her face screwed up, "I can see it, in my head. The screaming, the chairs are on fire and the chess pieces are running away. Students are running. Stop it Al, STOP IT!" she started screaming, she dropped her teddy and clutched her head.

"Lily? LILY!" Albus scooped Lily up in his arms and sprinted up to his parent's room.

"MAKE IT STOP ALBUS! MAKE IT STOP. STOP! STOP! STOP!"

Ginny ran through the door as soon as she heard the screams. She grabbed Lily from Al's arms and mouthed "Thank you, now go to bed," to him.

He ran away, so scared that he might be killing his sister. His own sister.

It was the 2 days after Lily had seen the fire in the Gryffindor common room. And as it turned out, there was in fact a fire there. Professor McGonagall came over as soon as she got Harry's letter about Lily seeing the fire.

She spent the day locked in a room with Ginny and Lily, and only came out for bathroom breaks.

Rose, James, Dan, Phil, Albus, Ron and Hermione had all heard the screams on that night and they were all sat around the kitchen table in silence, waiting for Lily.

_It's Christmas Eve, _Ron thought, _These children should be playing games, not waiting to see if their friend is crazy or not._ He stood up, and everyone looked at him, surprised by the sudden loud noise, "Everyone follow me, we should get out for a bit. Its Christmas Eve guys. We should have some fun. Lily will be – Is fine,"

"Go get your coats kid," Hermione said, smiling at Ron. When all the children had left the room she put his arms round his neck and kissed him softly, "I'm scared for her Ron," she buried her face into his shoulder.

"I am too Hermione, I am too,"


End file.
